Combines Rasp bar in the cage bottom

Thanks for sharing with us. I am sure I am not the only one who would be interested in more information. For starters, I assume you mounted everything without removing helical bars. Is that correctIJ Second, have you had a chance to try it, and in what cropsIJ Thanks Tom in MN

Hello Tom, On my combine, I am running the channel style bean helicals, which leaves the bottom of the cage open (looks like a P-3 with the grate cover only mine is just bare cage material) If you had standard P-1 seperator helicals, the bottom row (6:00 as you look into the cage) would have to be removed as the the bar runs the full width of the seperator cage. I haven't tried this setup in the field yet and I am crossing my fingers that it will work O.K. I have done a lot of upgrades this winter.(channel helicals,removed every other wire form the concave, the rasp bar, 1" X 1 1_4" cage doors, ect.) It is a fairly radical change from what I had before, but from what I have learned from everyone on this site, it should work great! I harvest mostly small grains, wheat and millet, and just tried some sunflowers last fall. As I said before, my main objective here was to try to tie everything together so that if there is a pressure point in one spot, it would spread it out and absorb it instead of breaking something. I have an old cage that I drug out of a neighbors junk pile that had been blown out. They had bolted one of those flat channel bars to the cage material with washers, and you can see how it just tore it loose. The other nice thing about this deal is that you can remove the rasp bar if you want and the rest of the setup can stay bolted underneath for strength. let me know if there is anything else, or it there is any reason that this might not work. Thanks, DAB P.S I was wondering what upgrades you have done to your R-60. Also what type of helicals are you running and how do you like them. Thanks!

Thanks for the information on your N7. My R60 has a standard P1 processor the same as an N series with the following mods: 1) Stacked flat helicals in the thresher section 2) Every other concave wire removed 3) 4 impellers pushing material out of the cage 4) Hi_lo cylinder bars in separator section 5) No cage sweep 6) level concave with no wedge. This R60 is fabulous in corn and soysthe only crops we raise. The only limiting factor is the sickle in beans and corn head settings. We soon found out how important sharp snapping rolls are when moving along at 5-6 mph in corn. The combine handles a 200bu crop with ease when the head (front for guys in the south pacific) does its job. We have had some plugging above the cage support between the thresher and separator sections in one variety of RR beans. As we dont have a cage sweep we were limited to installing a cage cover next to the frame support. This summer we will extend the height of the divider above the cage support so straw will have nothing to catch on. If that works we will remove the cage cover or reduce the width of the standard cage cover. When I run the R60 I sit barefoot in the cab and only go outside for the occasional pit stop. The only thing I have to do is steer it between rows. If this GPS stuff gets any better I will be out of a job. Tom in MN

Tom, Just curious as to why you haven't put in the seperator grate yetIJ It sounds like you have the exact set-up that we have in Dad's N5 and we are going to put the grate in this summer to try to stop the only loss we have which is all at the rotor. Also, what made you not want to run the cage sweep anymore, or did you just not want to mess with it. thanks, Kirk

Kirk We had planned to install a separator grate but ran out of time. Then our son decided to relocate his business in another state, which created many other priorities like automating grain handling so we could get by without him. The separator grate got pushed to the back burner. We have never even used a cage sweep. We bought the R60 used and neighbors unanimously recommended removing it instead of maintaining it. We kept the entire assembly for 3 years before finally giving it to the scrap dealer. Tom

Tom , you seem to be running only corn and beans but DAB is into small grains like me. Perhaps he would have more trouble without the sweep than you.

I have actually tried to run without the cage sweep in wheat with an N-5 and it was a MESS, but it was also a standard processor setup with reverse bars and the whole works. Maybe with the proper mods and all forward bars it might work. I'm just chicken to try it again! DAB

I had much the same experience with my N6. But I have a bog stock P1 processor. I believe some guys in OZ run without a sweep and I will be talking to one shortly. Will let you know what I find. I live on the South coast so the climate is cooler than the inland areas and we also tend to have more green weeds etc at harvest time so that may be against me as well.

After reading this discussion one can sympathize with machine designers. They have to come up with a machine that will function properly in every known crop. Each of us can modify our machines to get maximum performance for 1 or 2 crops without regard for other crops and then we wonder why the machine wasnt built to our own personal specifications. Maybe all of us should clarify the crops we raise to help others make a better decision on whether to make changes. Tom in MN

You hit the nail square on the head with that one Tom! If someone came out with a machine that would go from one crop to another without and changes, that would be the hottest machine around. There are guys around here that harvest wheat,millet,edible beans, corn, and sunflowers all with the same machine. That's a lot of changing to go from one to the other. DAB